1645: My Writing Process, Revealed by James Altucher

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Work Daily. My Writing Process, Revealed by James Altucher of jamesaltucher.com. I read from at least four different styles of books. I have coffee, I think, I list, I write, throw stuff out, then finally it's around 6am and I begin. Here's the types of articles. 1. Pain

[00:00:24] I think of a pain point in my life. Losing a lot of money, getting a divorce, being humiliated, being a bad father, being a bad friend or son or businessman. I start off with the most painful part, like, Then there was the one day I lost a million dollars. I'd like to start off as if it were mid-sentence. Then there was. Because no story has a true beginning, middle and end, we're always starting in the middle.

[00:00:49] And then the pain gets worse and worse, and then I tell how I might have gotten better, or even worse. But even when it gets worse, you always know it must have gotten better, because here I am, writing about it. 2. Annoyance I get annoyed at something I read, like someone will write, How to be an entrepreneur? And I read it and think, that's not what it's like at all. So I list for myself 10 things an entrepreneur needs to know. Then I start with a story.

[00:01:17] When I ran a company, the worst thing was when employees had f***ed with each other. And then I start the list of what an entrepreneur needs to know, and I make sure to tell a story with each item. Storytelling is everything. Stories are the bridge that facts and opinions travel over from one person to the next. 3. List Sometimes I can't think of what to write, so I list something. Like, the 40 ways I deal with shame. This is not a self-help list, this is a me-help list.

[00:01:46] Advice is autobiographical and nothing else. Then I write up the list. I write, But I forgot to tell you about the time Nadine said no when I asked her out and then she ran away. And then I begin to list the items, interweaving stories with each item. 4. The One Takeaway I watched the movie 8 Mile about Eminem. In the final rap battle, which he won, it seemed to me he was using cognitive biases to defeat his opponents. So I wrote a post about that.

[00:02:14] It combines pop culture, persuasion techniques, and cognitive biases. Everyone could relate. It was one of my most popular posts. I try to learn from everything I do, and then I don't just vomit what I learned. I tell my story about how and what I learned. I might even make a list like, 10 things I learned by watching Jerry Seinfeld perform live. And then I write it. I might write, Seinfeld started his act by telling me why I should kill myself. 5. Explanation

[00:02:42] When the Brexit vote happened in the UK, the US stock market was down 500 points in the morning. Everyone was screaming on social media that the world was going to collapse. I was scared when I saw everyone's comments. But most of the time, when everyone is scared, it's usually for the wrong reasons. Nobody actually knew what Brexit was. So I explained it. I turned all of the accusations that were being yelled online into questions, and then I answered each question. The result? The only rational post about the topic.

[00:03:11] Since then, my predictions on it have been mostly true. And it was, again, a popular article. 6. How did I learn? When I quit my job, quit my life, and decided to change everything, I had to reinvent myself. And then I had to do it again and again. I learned the hard way, as people say, how to reinvent myself. So then I wrote the ultimate cheat sheet on reinventing myself. It's not a how-to, it's how did I.

[00:03:36] And then I interviewed hundreds of people about how they reinvented themselves and then wrote the book. I've written articles like this about writing, sales, business, and relationships. I don't claim to be the expert on any of these things. I just write my story and then other people can decide. Most of the time, I am a complete failure, but even that contains lessons. So I write about it. 7. Challenge myself. I hadn't published a novel, so I decided to write a novel in the weekend.

[00:04:04] I wrote The Autobiography of Prince George. I used a pseudonym, John Kenneth Rowling. Prince George was just three days old. It was fun and funny, and I wrote it in three days and uploaded it to Amazon. Another time, I heard a true story about a guy who was secretly the richest man in the world, but he had never told his daughter. So I wrote a children's book about it, called My Daddy Owns All of Outer Space. I didn't know how else to write the story.

[00:04:30] In order to be an artist of any story, you constantly have to put aside the past and try to learn new things. What will be next for me? I don't know. Yesterday, I put together a pitch for a TV show and sent it to three production companies and an agent. All responded that they were interested. So we'll see. 8. Photo. I wanted to be a photographer, but I had never taken a photo in my life. So I asked a professional photographer, Chase Jarvis, how within one hour I can take a professional-looking photograph.

[00:04:58] He said, find your filter, which I told him was sad people, and go up to the person and explain what you are doing, and take their photograph. Since I also like to write, I often include the story of how I took that photo, how I approached the person, what I learned, how I got the photograph. 9. Graphic. Let's say someone made a graphic I like. Maybe it has a quote that I like on it. I get the graphic and I write a story around it. Or I might have an older post and I'll ask someone to make an infographic around that post,

[00:05:28] and then I'll write a new story around old material that has been put in graphic form. 10. Process is art. First there's the art, but now process is art also. For instance, I love the cover of Reinvent Yourself. And I noticed many people were tweeting photos with the book. Many people liked the cover. So I asked the cover designer, Pamela Sisson, to show me all of the covers she had been considering until she finally decided on the design of Reinvent Yourself. Eventually, I will write about her process for creating the cover.

[00:05:58] Process of art is just as much art as the final product. And 11. Question. For example, this post. Then I write and rewrite and rewrite. Then, almost always, I take out the first paragraph and the last paragraph. I took out four paragraphs off the top of this one, for instance, but this is the last paragraph. Boom!

[00:06:23] You just listened to the post titled, My Writing Process Revealed, by James Altucher of jamesaltucher.com. And thank you to James for letting us share his work today. He has founded or co-founded over 20 companies and published 20 books. He's also a contributor to the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, and the Huffington Post. And you can hear him on his own podcast, where he interviews a bunch of talented people. That podcast is called The James Altucher Show.

[00:06:52] And speaking of podcasts, if you like this idea of blog posts being read to you every day for free, check out our other shows which cover personal development, finance, health, relationships, and more. So just search for Optimal Living Daily, wherever you're hearing this show, to find all of them. Or you can always come by oldpodcast.com to learn a lot more. Alright, that should do it for today. Hope you're having a great week and thanks as always for being with me. I will see you back here tomorrow and that's where your optimal life awaits.